‘YOUTH AT RISK: THE FUTURE IN OUR HANDS’ THEME OF ANNUAL STUDENT CONFERENCE AT HEADQUARTERS 6-7 MARCH

Note to Correspondents

‘YOUTH AT RISK:  THE FUTURE IN OUR HANDS’ THEME OF ANNUAL

STUDENT CONFERENCE AT HEADQUARTERS 6-7 MARCH

The twenty-seventh annual United Nations International School (UNIS)-United Nations Student Conference will be held on 6 and 7 March 2003 in the General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters.  This year’s topic, “Youth at Risk:  The Future in Our Hands” will seek to address the trials and tribulations faced by today’s youth and is aimed at shedding light on the veiled and uncertain future that awaits the young people of the twenty-first century.

The youth of the developed world suffer from the acute problems of child abuse, youth violence and rampant media influence, while children and teens of developing nations fall victim to perhaps greater social and political demons that manifest themselves in child prostitution, slave labour and lack of education and health care.  These all pose significant threats to the basic rights and well-being of the world’s youth and they will be the topics of discussion at this year’s conference.  The organizers hope that this process of illumination will serve to elucidate the precise danger that these issues constitute, not only to the children themselves, but also to the future of mankind that they represent.

The UNIS-United Nations Conference is organized and run by the students of UNIS.  Five-hundred high school students from eight countries will participate in this year’s Conference.  They include students from 12 schools in the United States, among them, seven from the tri-state area.  The UNIS-United Nations Committee begins preparations for the conference nearly a year in advance, finding and nurturing a topic of global relevance, drawing up a list of speakers, inviting hundreds of students from schools across the world, organizing UNIS Tutorial House debates, and compiling a working paper of articles pertaining to the topic written and edited by members of the Committee.  The Conference will be broadcast live on the Internet.

The structure of the UNIS-United Nations Conference is designed to provide students and young thinkers with expert knowledge through the experience of provocative guest speakers.  The conference also endeavours to give students a platform to express and debate their own opinions and views in the most internationally significant gathering place on earth.  Lectures from known authorities, such as keynote speaker Vanessa Redgrave, will be interspersed with student discussion groups.  Other speakers will include children from five war torn parts of the world, whose participation was made possible with the assistance of the Utah Peace Institute, and Anna Grimaldi Colomer who works with the Puerto

Rico Committee for the United Nations Children's Fund.  By outlining the means to combat the threats to our future, the UNIS-United Nations Committee hopes that this Conference will inspire its international audience to actively engage in the critical issues that affect today’s youth and tomorrow’s leadership.

Further information can be found on the UNIS-United Nations Web site:  www.unis-un.org; e-mail:  unis-un@unis.org; phone:  212-584-3108 or 212-584-3056; fax:  212-889-8959.

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